A city rich in history, celebrating their 400th anniversary this year.
The French influence is heavy here.

03/26/2009

In the old part of the city, we found many buildings with plaques showing
they date from the 1600's. The oldest we found was 1608. A most
impressive city to walk thru. Below a few pictures of the old city.

This is just one example, as we found several buildings this way.
In this far north city (cold, icy, snow, winter winds), many buildings have
no openings such as doors & windows on their north sides. To keep that
blank side of the building from looking so "dull", many are painted as this
is. Note that all people, doors, windows and other 3 dimensional
appearance is part of the painting, not the building itself.

Just down the road is the Basilica of Sainte Anne-de-Beuapre. A
very impressive structure, but the craftsmanship of the work inside is
breathtaking. The columns, ceilings, doors, floors and so on were
completed by many different artistic craftsmen and women over a span of 50
years. Mosaics everywhere.

While in Quebec, we went on a whale watching expedition. A bus
picked us up and drove about 100 miles east on the St. Lawrence River.
At the point where the Saguenay River dumps into the St. Lawrence MANY whale
species come to feed. We rode in a large Zodiac boat with 20 other
people about an hour out and saw fin backs and humpbacks. We missed
seeing a beluga, but were told they were in there too.